Motor and Sensory Optimization of Mobile User Interfaces

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This research program will create new, efficient, and provocative user interfaces (UIs) for mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones.The short term goal is to develop new interfaces and evaluate them with users. The long term goal is to move the most provocative and opportune UIs forward into products that the user community will take up and embrace as novel, useful, and engaging interactions for their mobile devices."User interfaces" is broadly interpreted as the points of interaction between a user and a device in this case, a mobile device used by a human for doing a task or achieving a goal. The "motor" and "perceptual" aspects of the research pertain to the human output (motor) and input (perceptual) channels that are engaged as humans interact with mobile computing technology. "Optimization" is a reference to the use of empirical research methods to test alternative interfaces. Design and interaction options are conceived, implemented, tested, and compared in user studies, with better performing options advancing for further optimizing and testing, and poorer performing options discarded.The human side will research the use of hands, arms, fingers, and even the movement of head and eyes. (Speech input to computers is not part of this program of research.) There is considerable on-going research in the way users interact with mobile computing devices with their hands and fingers, and this will continue. The PI will research touch-based devices, such as smart phones and tablets, that support a variety of touch gestures (e.g., flicks) and multi-touch interaction (e.g., for zooming, chording). Auditory and tactile feedback will be researched as a means to optimize interaction and to reduce the visual load. The latter is important for mobile devices since they are typically used in dual-task settings where the primary task (e.g., walking) requires the use of the eyes. Modern mobile devices typically include a variety of sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetic field sensors, proximity sensors, light, temperature, and pressure sensors, and so on. Opportunities to engage and optimize information from these sensors in the user experience will be researched. Furthermore, cameras (sometimes two!) are typically embedded in contemporary mobile devices. The research will study the use of eye- or head-position information (obtained via the camera) in interaction scenarios. Gaming is a typically example of an application domain for such data. The research will include gaming as well as the broad spectrum of interaction techniques required for other applications.